Agreement between the South Korea Software Industry Association (KOSA) and NAVER Cloud was planned in order to strengthen South Korea’s software (SW) industry’s competitive edge in addition to simple cooperation.
As global companies started to introduce SaaS (software as a service) instead of packaged SW since the COVID-19 pandemic, SaaS has emerged as a core service of the global IT market. South Korean companies that possess advanced technical skills and solutions from different fields will be able to make transition to SaaS and expand their businesses globally.
The KOSA along with companies such as NAVER Cloud that specialize in cloud will provide support so that South Korean SW solutions will be able to export to different countries.
◊KOSA and NAVER Cloud establish a roadmap for South Korean SaaS companies to go global
According to a market research company called Synergy Research Group, the global SaaS market has been growing at 39% on average every year for the past ten years and its worth surpassed $100 billion for the first time in 2019. Because the market takes up more than 40% of the global cloud market, influence of SaaS has grown very rapidly within the cloud industry. About 80% of unicorn companies (companies that are valued at a minimum of $89 million (100 billion KRW)) such as Zoom and Slack in Silicon Valley are B2B (business to business) SaaS companies and this indicates that SaaS has been established as an important part of the market.
Many people in South Korean industries have been pointing out the urgency to secure competitive edge for the SaaS industry. However, in order for the industry to be vitalized, current SW companies have to either convert their packaged SW to SaaS or upgrade their products according to requests from global companies.
The KOSA and NAVER Cloud have established a roadmap for promoting South Korean SaaS companies in order to help them become global companies.
The association is going to provide education and training such as consulting on development of SaaS business model, hands-on experience with SW architecture design, and transition to cloud-based solution for companies that are trying to set up their existing services or new services as cloud-based SaaS. It will also provide training on infrastructure, consulting on infrastructure for different SaaS services, and review of the status of an infrastructure for SaaS service as well.
The association will continue to provide support even after companies make transition to SaaS. For companies that are looking to go global with their cloud-based SaaS, it will check customers’ responses and demands from markets that they are pursuing, provide consulting on global SaaS business model, and find best ways to set up profitable models. Through organizations that provide support on exportation, the association will also provide professional consulting on pioneering of global SaaS market, SaaS solution business, and opening of new market.
It will also plan on providing a SaaS certification through certification agencies for companies that provide SaaS services. By doing so, it will prove that a company has been verified of its SaaS service from many different angles including security, performance, and quality.
◊KOSA to establish a council and carry out two support projects this year
The KOSA will carry out two projects this year based on the roadmap.
A project that will help domestic cloud platform-based SaaS solutions enter global markets will share strategies from small and medium-sized venture-backed companies and help them enter global markets based on brand awareness of major companies.
The association plans to find successful cases of small and medium-sized venture-backed companies entering global markets and focus on securing global cases through export contracts of solutions from the companies and securement of users of the solutions.
To achieve these goals, it will establish a SaaS solution for companies participating in NAVER Cloud Platform’s Global Region. It will provide consulting for commercialization of solution and transition to SaaS and make diagnosis and set up strategies for markets that SaaS companies are trying to enter. It plans to advertise the SaaS industry by holding online webinars for markets that the companies are trying to enter.
A project that will set up an API (application programming interface) marketplace based on cloud platform will help South Korean SaaS companies to enter global markets by helping them prepare strategies and products that satisfy characteristics of local consumers and local companies. The project will provide support on transition to API services and consulting on commercializing by setting up an API marketplace. The KOSA will prepare detailed strategies for SaaS companies by conducting studies on markets in five major South-East Asian countries. It plans to induce consumers in South-East Asian countries easily use South Korean SaaS products through the marketplace.
In order to provide support for smooth transition to SaaS, the KOSA plans to establish a ‘SaaS council’ sometime this month.
CEO Lee Han-ju of Bespin Global will be the chairman of the council and prepare a cooperative system between SaaS companies and provide support on SaaS development and technical consulting. Members of the council will include companies that possess and develop technologies related to SaaS, companies that are trying to convert their technologies and application solutions to SaaS, and SW companies that are capable of cooperating with SaaS technology companies.
A representative from the KOSA said that the South Korean government is also considering providing one-stop support from business planning to commercialization and that the association will also provide support on creation of a win-win ecosystem, exportation, and training.
Staff Reporter Kim, Jiseon | river@etnews.com